SUBSECTION CAMAROPHYLU 313 



subdistant, creamy white when fresh, unchanging on drying, edges 

 even. 



Stipe 5-8 cm long, .5-9 mm thick, equal to tapered downward, soon 

 hollow, very fragile, surface dry, naked except for the pruinose apex, 

 white, slowly flushed yellow in places but drying white or whitish. 



Spores 5.5-7 X 3 fx, oblong, hyaline in KOH, hyaline to yellowish 

 in Melzer's solution. Basidia 4-spored, 32-38 X .5-6 \x. Pleurocystidia and 

 cheilocystidia none. Gill trama of hyaline hyphae diverging from a thin 

 central strand. Epicutis of pileus of narrow hyaline gelatinous hyphae, 

 very easily separated from context and usually lost in sectioning. 

 Clamp connections present. 



Habit, Habitat axd Distbibutiox — Scattered under beech on 

 low ground, Sharron Hollow, Washtenaw Countv, Mich., Aug. 13, 

 1960. 



Material Studied — Michigan: Smith 62895, type. 



Obsebvatioxs — The specimens remind one of an Hygrocijbe, but 

 the divergent gill trama is very distinct. The specimens are so delicate 

 that most of those making up the type collection were ruined before 

 they could be dried. The dry stipe, minute spores, and diaphanous 

 character of the fruiting body make this an easily recognized species. 

 H. subsordidus Murrill is the most closely related species, but it is firm 

 and fleshy like H. sordidus. The stature of H. diophanes is most like 

 that of H. flavescens. It is species of this stature which lead one to 

 think that the sections Hygrocybe and Hygrophorus could have 

 originated one from the ether with only a minor genetic adjustment. 



189 



Hygrophorus subalpinus Sm. 



Univ. Mich. Herb. Contr. 5: 19. 1941 



Illustrations: 

 Fig. 97. 

 Smith, Univ. Mich. Herb. Contr. 5, pi. 3. 



Pileus 4-6 cm broad, broadly convex when young, becoming obtuse 

 or plane, sometimes with a slight umbo and the margin spreading or 

 decurved, opaque, snow white over all and with a distinct luster, 

 viscid, pellicle thin and scarcely separable from the flesh, merely 

 subviscid in age, not discoloring appreciably, often having patches of 

 the broken veil adhering along the margin. Context thick ( 1 cm more 

 or less near the stipe), white, soft; odor and taste perfectly mild. 



Lamellae decurrent from the first, close (68-113 reach the stipe, 

 many very narrow individuals extend to the stipe making the count 



